Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c11.s5.1

c11.s5.1

Sir William Jones (1746-94) came to India in 1783 to assume the charge of a superior judge in Fort William. Jones was a poet, jurist, polyhistoric classicist and indefatigable scholar “whose powers would recommend him to such as Benjamin Franklin, Edmund Burke, William Pitt and Samuel Johnson.”⁴⁹ Before Jones left for India in 1783, he had mastered Arabic, Hebrew and Persian. “The figure of Jones functioned — and continues to function — as a reassuring vindication of British rule.”⁵⁰